Friday, March 2, 2018

No one seems to be paying any attention any more, but recent
events in Saudi Arabia must count as momentous. We do not know if the
liberalization policies of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will ultimately
succeed, but we all encourage his important steps in the right direction.

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius recently traveled
to Saudi Arabia to see for himself, to interview officials and people on the
street. He concludes that it looks good. It looks as though the Crown Prince is for real. Other journalists have reported
similarly.

Ignatius began by speaking with an important cleric:

Whether
MBS, as he’s known, can succeed with his transformational agenda is still an
open question. But he has a key ally in Sheikh Mohammad al-Issa, since 2016 the
head of the Saudi-backed Muslim World League. Speaking through a translator,
Issa endorsed a series of recent moves by the crown prince that he said are
backed by his colleagues among the ulema, or senior religious leadership.

Asked
about predictions from some analysts that there will be a religious backlash
against these changes, Issa said this view was “absolutely incorrect.” He
explained that his colleagues among the ulema accept that “these reforms will
assist in better understanding and in developing the society in general.”

Among the important changes in Saudi school curricula have
been an erasure of anti-Semitism. To make the gesture meaningful, Sheikh Issa wrote a
public letter to our Holocaust Museum. We should read it as outreach to Israel,
a nation with whom Saudi Arabia has been quietly establishing positive
diplomatic ties:

We recall, and commented extensively on it last year, President Trump's visit to Riyadh last May. Not only was Trump accorded far more
respect than his hapless predecessor, but the kingdom announced a new
initiative against Islamist terrorism:

The new
Saudi stance against radical Islam has an operational side, too, which I saw in
a visit Monday to a new Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology, known as
ETIDAL, or moderation. Under a giant dome, several hundred analysts sit at
computer screens watching Arabic social media traffic for signs of support for
extremist groups. There’s a slightly ominous “Big Brother” quality to the
oversight, but it answers Western demands that the Saudis get tougher about
combating extremism in their midst.

If we are going to win the war against Islamist terrorism
without having to fight it out in the trenches, this initiative is an
enormously positive development.

Then, Ignatius stopped to question a random grouping of young men
he saw on the street. He summarizes their attitude:

To be
sure, this was hardly a scientific survey. But every one of the young men
voiced spontaneous enthusiasm for changing the old ways. Especially popular was
MBS’s anti-corruption crackdown, in which 381
wealthy Saudis, including some prominent princes, were rounded up at the
Ritz-Carlton here last November and required to pay about $100 billion in restitution before
most were released.

“This
is the beginning of justice. The prince is the same as any other citizen.
That’s something!” said Rakan al-Dossery, 26, a counselor at a local high
school, of the anti-corruption drive. “The entire world is changing. It’s not a
surprise for the kingdom to be changing,” said Abdul-Aziz al-Faraj, 29, a bank
teller.

One
young man named Moab said that in addition to his bank job, he has just opened
a shop selling mobile-phone accessories, a business once dominated by Yemeni
expatriates. Explained Faraj: “A while ago, the average Saudi wouldn’t think of
starting a business. All he wanted was a government job.”

This is
the door that seems to be opening in the kingdom — toward a more modern, more
entrepreneurial, less-hidebound and more youth-oriented society. It’s a
top-down, authoritarian process, for now. But it seems to be gaining momentum.

All previous reports have noted that MBS has strong popular
support for his reform movement. He might be using authoritarian means, but who
among us is to say that he could have accomplished it otherwise.

[Addendum: More news from Saudi Arabia. The kingdom is now opening itself up to increased tourism. From the London Telegraph: link here.]

4 comments:

Cautionary note: Never underestimate the potential in Islam for extreme and violent reaction, even if everything seems to bode well on the surface. It's happened time and time again throughout Muslim history: Iran, the Wahabbis themselves, the terror networks, the Mahdi in Sudan, The Almoravi and the Almohand in North Africa